- By Ash
- in Reviews
The Outlast Trials is one of the strangest games I've ever played. It's an intense horror game that smashes you in the face with the absolute worst of humanity. And whatever you're imagining right now... it's worse. By a lot.
But at the same time, it's also a goofy co-op game where you and three other people dressed as BDSM clowns take turns bullying the mentally challenged. It's a combination that doesn't work. Shouldn't work. And yet, somehow I've happily spent the past two weeks repeatedly puking, getting puked on, and oftentimes both at the same time. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
So let me show you what makes The Outlast Trials so wonderfully messed up, and whether it's the kind of game you'd actually enjoy.
- By Ash
- in Reviews
Warcraft 3 is one of my favorite games ever. I spent many sweaty summers locked up in my room as a kid, chaining match after match until I could see moon wells in my dreams. So when I heard it's getting a remaster, I was bouncing off the walls with excitement. I mean, StarCraft: Remastered turned out fantastic, so what could possibly go wrong?
Sigh... as it turns out, one really shouldn't ask rhetorical questions like that. Because Warcraft 3 Reforged's launch was... rough. The new graphics were weird and uncanny for a lot of units, looking more like their World of Warcraft counterparts than anything from Warcraft 3. The sound design was somehow way less clear than the original's, and to top it all off, the game was less stable than a gyroscope I once accidentally put through a spin-dryer.
- By Ash
- in Reviews
I remember The Witcher 3 as one of the best RPGs I've ever played. But... it's been nearly a decade since I last tormented a peasant with a game of Gwent, and you know how memory is - it's a fickle beast.
And with the remaster on the horizon, I wanted to take one final trip back through it to see if there's anything - besides the visuals - that actually needs improving. Now originally, my plan was to play through the Bloody Baron questline and then jump straight to the Hearts of Stone expansion as those two are just chef's kiss... but, well, somewhere along the way I... uhm, took a wrong turn and just kinda beat the entire game again. All of it!
So join me in this retrospective as I go over what makes the Witcher 3 so special, what has managed to stand the test of time, and what I'd love to see blasted from orbit... or, you know, just improved. Either's fine.
- By Ash
- in Reviews
A few months ago I finally gave Warframe a try, and despite some grievances, I found myself really enjoying it. And so I kept playing... A LOT. And now, 300 hours later, the best way I can describe Warframe is a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde kind of a situation.
The things it does well are so unbelievably good that I just can't stop playing. I'll finish a mission and then immediately queue up another one. It's like instinct at this point. But at the same time, there's a bunch of awesome-looking stuff in here that is so poorly implemented that I'm genuinely confused how it all came from the same team.
So join me in this retrospective as I show you where Warframe excels, where it kinda muddies the water, and where it straight up falls flat on its face.
- By Ash
- in Reviews
I've always found the Mount & Blade series pretty intimidating, so it's only recently that I finally gave Mount & Blade 2 a proper shot. And now, about 300 hours deep, I must admit I feel like a right dingus for not diving in earlier.
So if you're in the same boat, or if you have no idea what the hell Mount & Blade 2 is even supposed to be, let me show you what exactly makes it so special, why it'll get you addicted to axes, and whether it's the kind of game you'd actually enjoy.
- By Ash
- in Reviews
It doesn't matter if we're talking about movies or games, sequels tend to follow one simple rule: bigger is better. More content, more characters, more explosions, more everything. Because if it isn't twice as big as the original, what's even the point?
But in an interesting little twist, The Sinking City 2 has decided to do the complete opposite. It's smaller, shorter, and far more linear than its predecessor... yet also massively better. Because while the original tried to be an open-world game, a detective game and a survival-horror all at the same time, the sequel has just slammed its chips on the table and gone all in on survival-horror - and in a direction I, honestly, never could've expected.
- By Ash
- in Reviews
Grim Dawn has been around for over a decade. It's one of the most beloved ARPGs out there, and somehow... I've never played it. I guess Path of Exile and Diablo just kept me occupied.
But with the launch of the Fangs of Asterkarn expansion, I finally bit the bullet and dove in. And after spending two weeks playing as a wizard-werewolf, getting showered in absurd amounts of loot and just kind of repeatedly murdered - I must admit, Grim Dawn has been one hell of a surprise!
- By Ash
- in Reviews
Despite always being curious about it, I must admit I was terrified of trying 7 Days to Die. Not because of spooky scary zombies, but because I've never seen a game's community this consistently angry at the people who made it.
So naturally, I always assumed the game was a complete dumpster fire. But a few weeks ago I finally bit the sham sandwich and dove in, and let me tell you - 7 Days to Die is not what I expected. Not even close.
- By Ash
- in Reviews
Warframe is one of the best co-op games out there, but starting it is genuinely terrifying. After thirteen years of updates, the game now has more systems and features than a jumbo jet.
But I finally gave it a try a few weeks ago, and I'll be honest - it was completely different from what I expected. So let me show you what the new player experience is like these days, where Warframe completely won me over, where it nearly lost me, and whether it's still worth jumping into today.
- By Ash
- in Reviews
CRPGs are weird. For the last twenty years, RPGs have been doing everything they can to become more approachable: less reading, fewer stats, simpler combat, less choices, and way bigger explosions.
Meanwhile CRPGs looked at that trend and just went: "Nah". Dialogue trees became forests. Character builds ballooned in complexity. And some of these games now expect you to read more than some people will in their entire life! You would think that this would completely doom the genre to irrelevance, but instead it's more popular now than it has been in decades.
And after playing through the Warhammer 40k: Dark Heresy beta, I found myself wondering why that's the case. What actually makes a great CRPG? And does all that complexity really make the games better, or have we all just Stockholm Syndrome'd ourselves into enjoying spreadsheets?